Hurry Up and Wait

So that leaves what, exactly?

I got my blood work back. The glucose test turned out much like I expected--high. It looks like I could technically be considered pre-diabetic. Yipee. Then there was the cholesterol. High. Ick. The doctor's notes on this report were thus:

abnormal - cholesterol - modify diet/exercise

repeat in 3-4 months

Um, thank you for the helpful advice on how to modify my diet.

Well, I guess I can go with an educated (by google) guess. Let's see, for the sugar, cut down on carbs and other sugar-like things. For the cholesterol, cut down on fat and such. Filter out the foods I don't like and we are stuck with green beans. Yes, I will now be going on an all green bean diet. Start sending the money my way, I have created the new fad diet! Be slim as a bean by only eating beans!

Now tell me, what am I supposed to do with the three cases of Dr. Pepper I bought yesterday? And the oreo cake in the fridge? One last hurrah before I start eating like a rabbit? Sounds good to me.

Internal dialouge

The thoughts floating around inside my head, while I on the recieving end of an ultrasound scan-y thing-y yesterday:

I am so glad I didn't see my usual asshat N.P. the other day. That doctor really seems to know her stuff. Maybe she'll get some new information from those blood tests that they stabbed me for earlier.

Amazing; I hardly even have to pee and yet my bladder is apparently full enough for an ultrasound! I wonder if there's anything interesting in there. Well, the lady said there isn't, so I guess there isn't.

Ugh, do we really need the dildocam? Fine, fine, just let me pee. Crap! Why can't I pee when I have to?

So, here we go again. Be gentle! Wow, she's actually nice about this. Not a wand monkey at all. Um, that kinda hurt, but hey; she apologized!

Um, this sure is taking a while... What? why does she need the sound for this? There's nothing interesting to hear in there. Is there?

Oh holy crap! What if I'm pregnant? No, I'm not pregnant. I've had two periods since the last time I had sex and I'm pretty sure I wasn't even ovulating then. But what if? My body has been known to screw me over before...

But the doctor said one of my ovaries felt enlarged. What if it's an ectopic pregnancy? What if I lose one of my tubes? My whole reproductive system? What if I die?!?

I wonder if I have any pregnancy tests at home...

And there you have it. I am insane. She wouldn't have let me leave the hospital if she expected an ectopic pregnancy, would she? Would she? Oh, crap, I am going to die.

I knew I should have asked for the real doctor...

So, I had a not directly fertility related visit to the doctor yesterday. (In other words, they finally dragged me in kicking and screaming for a pelvic exam and the various swabbings that go on at such visits.) I was slightly less thrilled than usual with this particular visit, because I would be seeing a doctor not familiar to me. Usually I see the nurse-practitioner there and I may not love her, but I am comfortable with her.

This time, however, I got to see a real doctor. This variety of health care professional is very hard to come by in the military version of women's health care. Well, in general it is very difficult to find a "health care professional" at a military treatment facility. Usually you get a person whose only official title is their rank and appears to have less knowledge about your condition than you do. Having your spouse gone for several months is much less of a sacrifice than the one made when you exchange your civilian doctor for the military equivalent.

But, back to the details surrounding the last time I bared all to a total stranger. This new doctor was a good thing. A fresh pair of eyes looking over my rather thick file of test results and BBT charts. A fresh opinion and a questioning mind wondering,  Why the heck is no one treating this woman's PCOS? I like her. She ordered yet more blood work for my weary (yet lulled into a sense of complacency by my lack of recent testing) veins and an ultrasound for an apparently enlarged ovary. Hmm, maybe there is something to that poly cystic ovary part of my brand-spanking-new diagnosis. Among the tests that are being done are ones to test my insulin resistance-ness. Sounds like fun.

Oh and another thing to like about this doctor--she told me my weight is good. And this is while I weigh more than I did when the NP shaped like a marshmallow told me I needed to work on my "weight problem." Anyone want to help me roast a 200+ pound marshmallow?

'Tis the season...

Tertia's post reminded me that I've been putting off something very important for a while now. I need to donate blood again.

I have a semi-excuse, but that's really not any good, since I can easily avoid what happened last time if I put my foot down. What happened last time? Well, since you asked, I'll tell you.

A few years back I had some anemia issues. You know how they test your blood before you donate to see if you have enough iron to handle it? Well, the last time I donated, my blood wasn't really in any shape to be given and yet they let me do it anyway. Bad idea.

I felt horrible afterwards and this wasn't the first time I'd given blood, so I thought it was weird it would affect me so badly this time and not any others. As I found out the next day, I was badly  dehydrated at the time and probably shouldn't been giving away any bodily fluids at that time. (The doctor did say that didn't affect me, so it might have just been the iron issue.)

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, give blood, but be smart about it. Drink plenty of fluids for at least a day beforehand, and if they say your iron levels are "iffy", go home, eat some spinach and come back a few days later. Giving blood should not sacrifice your health in the process.

What, no takers?

So, who wants to bet that I'll run out of OPKs before I ovulate?

*waving hand all over the place*

Ugh.

Dumbfounded

Just when I think there cannot possibly be a more stupid person in the world, the military health care system lets me know that I am sadly mistaken. It's not too bad, but generally speaking, a doctor with her head up her rear is not a good thing.

The appointment was to figure out if I've got a cold or something more fun. Like a sinus infection. Apparently it's just a cold, but that's getting ahead of our story...

All over the map

How is it that even though we've travelled to San Antonio twice before, we never managed to get lost until this trip? I have no idea, but we didn't jsut get lost once or even twice, but three times! Yikes, we really need to work on our navigational skills.

Even before leaving for our trip it seemed like we were constantly in the car. We spent the first part of last week hunting down our medical records. We both had records on base, but they were on different floors of the clinic. We both had records off base, but they were in hospitals on opposite sides of town. Oh well, it's a lot better than trusing our doctors to fax the appropriate records (they forgot to do that when we went to see the urologist earlier this summer) down there.

We spent the first part of yesterday morning exploring Lackland Air Force Base. It's where Nathan went through Basic Training, but since they don't exactly give trainees many opportunities to explore, he hadn't really seen much of the base. We really enjoyed the BX there, but it only left us depressed thinking of what crummy one there was waiting on our home base.

Finally it was time for our appointment and we made sure to arrive ten minutes earlier than they told us to. (The appt. was at 10:45, but they wanted us there at 10:00 to fill out paperwork.) And then we waited until 11:30 to see the doctor*.

The annoying thing is that after all that time, effort and getting lost, they (yes, we did speak to two doctors) told us absolutely nothing new. Well, they did reassure us that Nathan's sperm count and quality is good enough to get the job done (They like to see 40mil and Nathan's count is just shy of that.) They wanted us to move straight to Clomid/IUI but Nathan's upcoming TDY (four months in Germany-yipee!) kinda put a kink in those plans. So, we're looking at Clomid for next cycle and for several cycles after he gets home and then we'll see about IUI next summer. (That should be fun to coordinate from four hours away...)

I feel a little better about the fact that Nathan doesnt' need surgery (until his varicocele gets too painful for him to handle anyway). But I'm more than a little dissappointed that we are now firmly in the "unexplained" category (well, we know that I don't ovulate very regularlly, but we don't know why). And I am soooo not looking forward to Clomid and those lovely hot flashes again.

*I was not expecting the doctor to be male, young or cute. I was very relieved when I didn't end up getting the pap test that the nurse really wanted me to have.

The appointed time (or, why I hate the Air Force)

Okay, so I don't really hate the Air Force, but the powers that be are really starting to tick me off.

After about six months of waiting for someone to get off their butt and schedule us an appointment with the RE (they had the wrong phone number for us and never bothered to check with our clinic for the correct one!) we finally got fed up and started bugging them about it. And now I have a shiny new appointment Tuesday morning. I should be jumping for joy, right? Ha!

Okay, I get the call, schedule the earliest available appointment because, hey, my husband will be leaving the country in less than two months and if we drag our feet, the next appointment they give us could be while he's gone. So, I call Nathan to inform him of the appointment time. And here's where the fun starts.

He has a briefing on Tuesday and his bosses are asshats. He's already missed this particular briefing once before, so getting out of it could be tricky. After three hours of waiting, worrying and screaming at no one in particular Nathan gets home from work and informs me that he can go. But, they need some stupid paperwork done first. I love the Air Force.

All seemed good (if somewhat annoying...) and I relaxed a bit. Then, Nathan called after getting in to work this morning telling me that they'll let him off for Monday and Tuesday (the appointment is in San Antonio, which is four hours away from here) but he really needs to stop driving me to appointments*.

If you thought it was a little foggy this morning, that was just the steam coming out of my ears.

Apparently they think that these appointments are all for me. Or they don't care. Or they've got their heads so far up their butts that they can't hear what Nathan is telling them. I know for a fact that if I was pregnant Nathan would be allowed to go to each and every appointment I had, no questions asked. For those he is only needed for moral support. For these, he's one of the patients. I hate the Air Force.

*In case you didn't know (or did know and just forgot) I don't drive. I don't have a license. I planned on getting one before I left Virginia to marry Nathan, but they had just recently changed their laws so that you had to be 19 or older (I was 18) to get a license without taking Driver's Ed. Since then, I have been dragging my feet on the issue because I cannot parallel park. Texas requires you to and Virginia doesn't. Grrrr. Yes, I plan on getting this taken care of before Nathan is overseas, but I don't respond well to pressure, so those asshats Nathan works for need to back off.

A little better

Things are looking up somewhat...

• The stained PJ's actually look pretty good now that they've been washed (and I'm feeling better too, since my period is finally over)

• Idiot brother-in-law finally screwed his head on straight and is back at home with his wife (still not sure why she wants him back...)

• Nathan is suppoesed to call the RE's office sometime this week and see if he can't hurry our appointment along

• If Nathan does go overseas it will mean extra $ (and I may be able to join him in time for our anniversary)

• I still miss my kitty, but my other kitty seems to be doing his best to cheer me up (at least that's what I tell myself when he sneezes in my face...)

Enough with the tears already

Too much to cry about...

• My period arrived with a bang this morning and promptly stained a once lovely pair of pajama pants

• Nathan's idiot brother (the one that was cheating on his wife and didn't really care if she knew) is finally getting a divorce (for some unknown reason she didn't want to kill him and is actually upset that they couldn't work things out)

• Still can't get an appointment with the RE

• Everyone seems to be getting hit hard lately

• It looks like Nathan will be overseas (not in Iraq) for both Christmas and our anniversary

• I really miss Fidget